The vehicles working Burton upon Trent's warehouses and breweries are, like most commercial vehicles now, packed with sensors, control units and wiring looms. The same warning light can come from half a dozen places, and a stored fault code only tells you where to start looking. Changing parts until the light goes out is the expensive way to fix a vehicle, and it often fails.
A method, not a guess
We read what the vehicle reports, test the system it points to and confirm the cause before anything is replaced. That holds for engine faults and derates, electrical and charging faults, no-starts and fuel problems, air and brake warnings, clutch and gearbox symptoms and overheating. Because our technicians carry diagnostic equipment, a lot of it can be done wherever the vehicle has stopped, whether that is a lay-by on the A38 or a depot yard in Branston.
Emissions faults on town work
Vehicles that spend the day on short runs around Burton, along the A5121 and back and forth over the river, tend to be the ones that show emissions and AdBlue faults. Stop-start driving is hard on exhaust after-treatment, and a sensor or dosing fault can drop a vehicle into reduced power with little warning. Topping up AdBlue or clearing the code rarely ends it. Finding the reason does.
The faults that come and go
The hardest jobs are intermittent: a light that shows on the way back from Derby and has gone by morning, or a derate that only appears pulling out of a loading bay with a full trailer behind. Before we touch anything we want the pattern. When does it happen, hot or cold, loaded or empty? Has anything changed, such as a refuel, a repair or a different trailer? A photo of the dashboard while the light is on is worth a great deal.
Roadside or Melbourne
If the cause can be found and fixed on the spot, we do it there. When a fault needs more time, or the vehicle needs to be on lifts, we bring it to our workshop at Calke Mill Farm in Melbourne. Either way you are told what we found and what we did, and if a repair is only to get the vehicle home, you hear that while the technician is still standing beside it.
Call before it gets worse
A vehicle in limp mode is protecting itself. Get it somewhere safe and ring 01332 916028 rather than nursing it on to the next drop. For a fault that hasn't stranded anyone yet, the same number arranges a diagnostic visit at your yard or a slot in the workshop.
